My last few weeks have included some irksome little “unexepecteds.” Dead car battery. Flooding in that ridiculous thunderstorm. The like.
You know the sort of things I’m talking about, because they’ve happened to you, too.
I try to avoid using the words “unexpected”or “unpredictable” because I can be confident that, at some point, my car or my house will need repair, or I’ll feel under the weather, or something urgent will pop up.
I prefer instead to call these “sporadic.” They happen irregularly, but that doesn’t mean we can’t expect them.
Now, it could be argued that I spend TOO MUCH time thinking about what could go wrong. #neurotic. But getting my life together while things are going smoothly means I’m less frazzled when those sporadic things inevitably come to pass.
Take the dead car battery:
I have my morning choreography down. My closet prime real estate is filled with my life uniform essentials. I can find what I need every morning because I follow curfew every night. And so, I have a nice cushion of time in the mornings before I have to leave the house.
Which meant that when my car wouldn’t start, I could wait for a Lyft and still be on time. (Plus, my husband called the tow truck company for me because 1. he’s the best and 2. we have a strict, egalitarian distribution of household tasks.)
I use YNAB to regularly budget for sporadic expenses so I can absorb the cost when they inevitably come up. So, I could pay Eastern Car Care without asking Steve to wait two weeks to cash my check. I didn’t have to choose between the Lyft rides and groceries for the week. This is undoubtedly linked to my economic privilege, but being prudent and provident certainly helps.
Same with the flooding:
About two weeks before water got into my basement, I heard from a friend after helping her clear out hers. She was grateful that we tackled the boxes from her move when we did, because they would have been destroyed in a recent flood had we not.
Reminded of this totally predictable fact of life that basements tend to flood, I descended into my own basement and weeded some leftover wedding items, some redundant camping equipment, and consumable supplies.
I stored the remaining essentials in plastic bins on metal shelves, about an inch off the ground. When the water seeped in from the flooded street, I only needed to mop it up and run the fan to get things back in order. I was so grateful for the gift past-me gave present-me, and I’m doing a solid for future-me by consistently funding my house maintenance fund each month (did I mention I love YNAB?!) and by owning only what I need, use, and love.